After Ida leaves supermarket gutted, workers stock up on hope
By Harrison Golden
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LAFOURCHE PARISH, Louisiana (WDSU) — At the only supermarket in Galliano, cleaning up means throwing out.
Workers at the Galliano Food Store have spent more than a week tossing soaked and spoiled items from shelves. They were able to donate about 20% of its stock to churches and charities, but the rest had to go into dumpsters. Now the grocery store’s aisles are as bare as its roof.
“It was hard to come back to,” said Jaedon Burregi, whose family has owned the store since 1976. “But we know as a family we have to stick together.”
Hurricane Ida has left similar damage across Louisiana’s southeastern coastline. Lower Lafourche Parish remains a maze of spoiled food, scattered debris, downed trees and poles, floodwater, capsized boats and roofless structures. Many people who remain fear being forgotten.
“It’s hard sometimes being on the outskirts of a large city,” Burregi said. “This area received significant damage. These neighborhoods are important.”
Others wish they could forget the hurricane happened.
“Not too much scares me, but that did,” said Nichole Hoffely, who has lived in her sedan since Ida left her Galliano apartment roofless and moldy. “I called my youngest daughter, who is safely in Houston. I said goodbye to her. I thought that was the last time I was going to talk to her. That was the most horrific thing I’ve ever been through in my life.”
Hoffely recalls being in south Louisiana for hurricanes Andrew, Gustav and Katrina. She has rebuilt before, but she doesn’t plan to do the same this time.
“I don’t want to leave,” she said. “But at the same time, I can’t go through that again.”
For those who choose to stay, Galliano Food Store plans to restock its shelves – but not yet. Contractors project the supermarket will be fit to reopen in six to eight months. Burregi says that may seem like a long wait, but he’s just glad to have a timeline.
“It feels good,” he said. “It keeps our head held up high that we can come back.”
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